SD69 have updated bylaws document in order to publish it for community feedback. It is published here in full, for community members review, feedback and final acceptance.

This issue is blocker for several actions, including:
- Elections for next Council/Board of Directors, we'd like to use one single voting for both elections and Bylaws approval
- Legal entity, that will took place after elections.

It is by all means not a final document, and only a suggestion from the current Council for establising a legal entity to continue the Maemo society.

Therefore the feedback after review is necessary from community members and a final acceptance of the community is needed in order to establish a legal entity to be responsible for carrying out the Maemo.org infrastructure.

Reality is that many people have access to tools that open this "proprietary format". In fact there are no less than three free viewers/editors available for the N900 capable of reading the document in this format: KOffice, AbiWord, and DocsToGo. The former two being able to edit it once opened, and the latter requiring a trial/paid version to edit. For desktop users, there's all that and OpenOffice. The PDF version (also "proprietary") has several opensource viewers available.

So can we please stop bickering about the container format now, and focus on the content?

Realistically, we're not looking for someone to edit the document and send it back to us. Getting a hundred marked up copies of the document mailed to us with random changes and no discussion on what needs to be addressed or why those changes are important would be impossible to manage, and would leave the community out of the discussion. The important part is the discussion, not the edit-ability of the document.

Said another way: It would be far more helpful if you opened it, read it, and made comments on the content instead of the container. The (open source) tools are easily available to do so...

After reading through it a few times, it seems fine, but I want to read it a few more times...

The
Board shall have the authority to create community positions, such as but not limited to a
Community Council and an Executive Director, and to appoint any community member in good
standing to such positions or to allow for a vote of community members to fill such positions.

I'm not a fan of this.... The board should be allowed to pick temporary community council members, but, it should not have the right to pick community council members and executive directors for long term.

The
Board shall have the authority to create community positions, such as but not limited to a
Community Council and an Executive Director, and to appoint any community member in good
standing to such positions or to allow for a vote of community members to fill such positions.

I'm not a fan of this.... The board should be allowed to pick temporary community council members, but, it should not have the right to pick community council members and executive directors for long term.

Creating a position does not necessary mean choosing the person to be in that position, it may be perfectly be eligible by voting or by meritocracy. Maybe that is something that could be clarified in the document.

Creating a position does not necessary mean choosing the person to be in that position, it may be perfectly be eligible by voting or by meritocracy. Maybe that is something that could be clarified in the document.

This works for me... I have no issue with that, please clarify that they can create the position on an as needed basis, but the people chosen by the board are only temporary and will only remain till someone else is voted on by the community.

Any special reason why it's called the "Hildon" foundation?
This is a body representing all iterations of Maemo, up to and including Harmattan right, so why not a name that is more representative of that?

II. Mission

The mission of the Foundation is to promote and progress the future availability of maemo derived or inspired open source software, and related toolkits, for mobile pocketable devices. The MaemoŽ operating system and Hildon user interface was originally developed by Nokia Corporation and used in several commercially available devices, including the N900. Most of MaemoŽ and Hildon is currently open source software as defined by the Open Software Foundation and, as such, continues to be improved upon by a volunteer community at www.maemo.org. Nokia intends to cease its operation of www.maemo.org and has indicated a willingness to transfer it to a suitable organization.

Good but zero mention of the UI used by Harmattan devices, is this simply because much more of Hildon is open so far, does that really matter?

IV. Membership and Governance

<SNIP>The Board shall have the authority to create community positions, such as but not limited to a Community Council and an Executive Director, and to appoint any community member in good standing to such positions or to allow for a vote of community members to fill such positions.

IMO should be more along the lines of....

The Board shall have the authority to create community positions, such as but not limited to a Community Council & an Executive Director, & appoint community members to such positions, in accordance with who the community have voted in to fill those positions.

Of course there should be a good screening process initially, to ensure that the most suitable candidates are in the running from the outset.
I see no need for the board to be able to appoint positions free of authorisation by the community, perhaps the council can explain why this is crucial?

VII. Amendments

The Bylaws of the Foundation may be changed with 3/4 majority of the Board and 2/3 majority of community members eligible to vote for Board Directors, except that the requirement that software must be freely available under an open source license as defined by the Open Software Foundation may not be changed. A proposed Amendment to the Bylaws must be announced at least three months before the Board meeting in which it is considered and before the vote of community members.

Any reason why the Board needs to have power to change by-laws as they so choose (pending 75% agreement), shouldn't it always remain only the providence of the community?
Also I see no mention of how many people are allowed to be on the Board for each 1yr term...

VIII. Applicable Law

The Foundation shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, nothing shall preclude the Foundation from maintaining its financial accounts, servers or other infrastructure for its Internet website in any other jurisdiction, or from conducting suitable promotional and distribution activities in any other jurisdiction.

Just a tiny nitpick but this reads better IMO....

The Foundation shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, nothing shall preclude the Foundation from maintaining its financial accounts, servers, or other infrastructure, in any other jurisdiction, or from conducting suitable promotional and distribution activities in any other jurisdiction.